LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansas officials on Friday asked a federal judge to uphold the part of a new state law banning abortions 12 weeks into a pregnancy that requires doctors to test for a fetal heartbeat before performing the procedure.

The state attorney general’s office asked U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright to allow the state to enforce that portion of the law while the constitutionality of the 12-week ban is being challenged in her court. Wright on May 17 blocked the enforcement of the 12-week ban, which had been set to take effect in August.

The law prohibits abortions starting at 12 weeks if a fetal heartbeat is detected using an abdominal ultrasound.

The AG’s office, which is representing the state Medical Board, also asked Wright to uphold the part of the law that requires doctors to inform women seeking an abortion if a heartbeat is detected and the statistical likelihood of the child surviving based on its gestational age.

The state argued that the ultrasound provision would not place a significant burden on a woman seeking an abortion before a fetus could viably survive outside the womb.

“The informed consent provisions of Act 301 do not have the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking a pre-viability abortion, and the informed consent provisions further legitimate interests of the state,” the state said in its filing. “The informed consent provisions are constitutional as a matter of well-settled law.”

In issuing the injunction blocking the law’s enforcement, Wright said that the ultrasound provision may not pose an undue burden on a woman’s ability to have an abortion. A trial is set for next year.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas and the Center for Reproductive Rights sued the state on behalf of two Little Rock doctors who perform abortions. The lawsuit names members of the State Medical Board as defendants because the board is responsible for licensing medical professionals.

Arkansas’ Republican-led Legislature enacted the ban in March when it overrode Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe’s veto of the measure. Beebe and other opponents of the ban say it violates the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion until a fetus could viably survive outside the womb, which is generally considered to be at 22 to 24 weeks.